Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

So, any Broadchurch fans?

[Only made it through the first two episodes of the recent series so far, having bailed after the first episode of the previous one. Kind of not super-impressed, but I guess it's better than The Phantom Menace. Maybe that's the reason for the good reviews.]

For the next hour, everything in this post is strictly based on the available facts.

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

I've seen the first season of Broadchurch and loved it. There was only one season at the time.

I remember Jodie Whittaker (the 13th Doctor) in the show, but she was a distressed mother. Was hard to see the Doctor qualities in that kind of character but does not mean that she does not possess them.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." - Han Solo, Terminator 2: With a Vengeance

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

Kibouchi wrote:

I've seen the first season of Broadchurch and loved it. There was only one season at the time.

Ah, yeah, just realized the ambiguity. I haven't seen Broadchurch at all, so would be interested to hear views. I meant I've only made it through the first two episodes of Season 10 of Doctor Who, having bailed on Season 9 after one episode and heard that the rest of it wasn't good.

Unlike the last go-round, didn't really recognize any of the actors who people were talking about as being in the running, so I don't have any real expectations one way or the other beyond "Thank fuck Steven Moffat is leaving".

For the next hour, everything in this post is strictly based on the available facts.

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I really liked Jodie and the episode.I got burned out on Who shortly after the regeneration into Capaldi (not his fault, I like his Doctor fine) but thought I'd drop back in to see Thirteen. She immediately felt like the Doctor to me. The storyline wasn't Earth-shattering, but it was fun, and I think it sets the tone for a season that has a beating heart at the centre of it.

Also, I like the Doctor's outfit. So there's that.

P.S. this fanvid got me all excited and made me remember why I love Doctor Who.

If it's not about musicals, I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

I watched a few clips of the first episode, and my opinion was: 1) this looks like a shitty episode, and: 2) it looks like she's totally killing it. Which is honestly a way stronger reaction than I had to Capaldi, and I expected to really like Capaldi, and I didn't have any expectations for Jodie. (To be fair to everyone, I didn't check back in on Capaldi after the first episode of his run, and probably won't check back in on Jodie, so who knows.) I'm a fan.

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

I like how Jack Graham put it on Twitter: "I'm expecting Chibnall's Doctor Who to be mediocre. But after years of the show being mediocre, pretentious AND obnoxious, just-mediocre will be a breath of fresh air."

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

Teague wrote:

Also, watching that fan vid, it just occurred to me that Doctor Who is a superhero.

Pretty much. Although my favorite treatment of the Doctor is as the lone mythic figure that just appears out of no where to save the day, occasionally fails and then disappears back into the fog. But then we get to see what happens outside of that, him coping with the failures and the people he's hurt along the way. Which is why I think Tennant's run works the best of all the New-Who's, they actually went to that well and treated it seriously (Well, as seriously as that era Who could I s'pose), so you get the character moments that really hit hard inside all the cooky crazy sci-fi action stuff.

And specifically one of the threads they never really pulled on that I wish they had is how much the Doctor needs other people around him, when he's alone for too long he starts going stir-crazy and letting the darkness that lurks in the corners of brain take over. There was like half a moment in Smiths run that touched on it iirc but it was quickly run over by whatever half assed monster of the week they were doing.

Re: Doctor Who is awesome, yeah?

Kind of? The problem is that the show doesn't really do either very well. Going back to what I said before this trailer is really really good at picking out all the bits and putting them in order that makes it seem like DW is this amazing superheroic figure travelling through space and time, saving lives. But in the moment it's all drowned out in the noise of all the bullshit, and different writers having different visions of what the Doctor should be, and having to stick inside the case of the week format without a lot of attention to the arc of the doctor and his companions over the course of the season(s), leaving this sort of muddy mess.

Also, the different Doctor's all definitely have their own vibe around them so it's hard to pin down the one thing "the Doctor" should be. Eccelston was the damaged war vet trying to put the pieces back together, Tennant was the childlike wonder seeing everything there is to see and sharing it with his friends that he absentmindedly puts in harms way along the way, and Smith is the fairy tale manic pixie dream boy that swoops in and saves you and shows you how amazing the universe is. I just have a personal affinity for the "mythical legend of the Doctor" version.

EDIT: I think the better word for what I'm thinking of would be the Gandalf Doctor. He shows up one day, can do all sorts of fantastic and amazing things, takes you on an adventure that changes your life forever or helps you save the world, and then he vanishes again leaving you and the world slightly better than it was before.